The FBI said that “heartbreaking” errors in a background check of Charleston shooter Dylann Roof allowed him to purchase a semi-automatic handgun. Roof used the weapon to kill nine African-American people attending a church Bible study last month.

"We are all sick this has happened," FBI Director James
Comey told reporters at the agency headquarters on Friday.
"We wish we could turn back time, because from this vantage
point, everything seems obvious. But we cannot."

The problems began with a drug-related arrest of Dylan Roof in
South Carolina weeks before the shooting, during which he
admitted to possessing illegal drugs. Under federal rules, that
admission alone would have been enough to immediately disqualify
Roof from an April gun purchase, according to Comey.

According to CBS News, Roof used birthday money from his
father to buy the firearm.

The FBI uses a database known as the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System to scrutinize people looking to buy
weapons. The Bureau has three business days to respond to
dealer's request before a sale can proceed. Comey said that the
complicated layout of police jurisdictions in Columbia, South
Carolina contributed to the mistakes, according to ABC News.

The FBI examiner who evaluated Roof's request to buy a gun never
saw the arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was
listed on the South Carolina criminal history records that she
reviewed. Comey said that had the examiner seen the arrest
report, Roof's gun purchase would have been denied.

The West Virginia examiner did find Roof's arrest on a drug
charge, but for some reason the arresting agency listed was the
Lexington County Sheriff's Office, whereas the arresting agency
was actually the Columbia Police Department. She contacted the
sheriff's office and the county prosecutor's office. The
prosecutor did not respond and the county sheriff's office
suggested she check with the Columbia police force.

If the examiner had done so, she would have seen an arrest report
in which Roof admitted having the drug Suboxone, which is used to
treat opiate addiction. However, since she was unfamiliar with
the area, her list didn't include the Columbia Police Department,
and she contacted another police department closer to the gun
dealer, one which had no report on Roof's arrest.

Comey said he had ordered an internal 30-day review of what
happened, and that FBI officials would be meeting with the
victims' relatives. The Justice Department has begun its own
investigation, according to the Associated Press.

"It's disastrous that this bureaucratic mistake prevented
existing laws from working and blocking an illegal gun
sale," Grassley told the AP. "The facts undercut
attempts to use the tragedy to enact unnecessary gun laws. The
American people, and especially the victims' families, deserve
better."